3. Rheumatoid Arthritis Is An Autoimmune Disease
It’s easy to think of joint pain and swelling as something that occurs due to stress on the area. That assumption has led to the linking of obesity and arthritis, and also plays into the assumption that it is something that happens mostly to older people who have been using their joints the longest. But rheumatoid arthritis, one of the most common types, is actually an autoimmune disease.
This means that the body’s immune system wrongly believes that its own joint tissue is diseased and must be attacked. The cells within the joint capsules are then bombarded constantly and the cartilage, bone, and ligaments become deformed. Untreated, not only will the sufferer lose mobility, he or she may also experience systemic damage to their organs.